A PROTESTANT teenager was killed by a hit-and-run driver yesterday, heightening tension in north Belfast where riot police baton-charged loyalists blocking Catholic children getting to school.

A PROTESTANT teenager was killed by a hit-and-run driver yesterday, heightening tension in north Belfast where riot police baton-charged loyalists blocking Catholic children getting to school.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary said the death of Thomas McDonald, 16, who was knocked off his BMX bicycle, was being treated as murder.

He was hit by a car which mounted a footpath in the city's Whitewell area, where rival crowds had stoned and petrol bombed each other just hours earlier.

The incident happened three miles from the Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, at the centre of bitter street protests and confrontations.

And with no sign of a halt to the trouble, the death provoked threats of more serious disturbances.

A family friend of the dead boy said, "It will be an eye for an eye."

Hundreds of police and troops were on full alert last night after a warning by Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble that the violence could spread.

Thomas was knocked down and killed less than 200 yards from his home in the loyalist White City enclave. Police later arrested a 32-year-old woman and were questioning three others in connection with the incident.

It is understood the car involved, a silver Ford Focus, followed the teenager into White City after a stone was thrown at the vehicle as it emerged from the nearby nationalist Longlands estate.

Neighbours said Thomas's mother Pauline and stepfather Thomas were too distraught to talk about the tragedy, but a friend warned that loyalists would be intent on revenge.

Three officers were hurt in clashes with loyalists, one needing treatment for a broken collar bone after a pipe bomb exploded just yards away.

Hundreds of police and troops were on the streets amid fears of more trouble.

Meanwhile, the trouble in the Ardoyne district, where children were escorted to school by riot police, was not on the same scale as 24 hours earlier.

Yesterday troops and RUC officers held back 200 screaming protesters.

Bricks and bottles were thrown and at one stage garden fencing was ripped up and used to attack security forces.

Dozens of RUC and Army Land Rovers were lined up along both sides of the Ardoyne Road and used as a protective corridor as up to 45 girls, aged four to 11, and their parents walked the 300 yards to Holy Cross Primary School. None of the

children or parents was hurt.

But others were too frightened because of the tension, and stayed away as the violence erupted in the neighbouring Protestant Glenbryn estate.

Mr Trimble warned a solution must be reached soon. He said, "There is a serious danger that the problems could spread to the other schools in the area."

Stormont Education Minister Martin McGuinness urged all political leaders to speak out in defence of the children's rights.

He said, "This situation can be resolved if political representatives of people who are protesting raise their voices in defence of innocent children and against these protesters."

Acting Stormont First Minister Sir Reg Empey and acting Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon also issued a joint statement pledging their support for any community efforts to resolve the situation.